But just when students are starting to feel like Bambi on the first day of hunting season, there’s finally some good news. The news, my friends, is that Amazon.com is now offering textbook rentals for its Kindle reader platform.

Here’s what we know so far . . .

Textbooks can be rented for between 30 and 360 days. If a student needs more time, the rental can be extended in one-day increments.

Amazon.com predicts that the rentals will save as much as 80% of the cost of buying textbooks.

Amazon.com will store a student’s notes and text highlights online, so they can be accessed even after a rental expires.

Even if you don’t own a Kindle reader, you can still read your Kindle textbooks on your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android device, Windows Phone 7, or Blackberry, because Amazon.com offers free Kindle aps for all of those platforms.

Thank You, Amazon.com . . .

When a heavyweight like Amazon.com starts to rent eTextbooks for students, that’s big news. But it makes sense, doesn’t it? With online learning exploding in scope, shouldn’t there be online college textbooks to go along with it? Why walk around with a neat little laptop and a pile of huge, outdated textbooks that cost $250 each? Doesn’t sound exactly right, does it?

Thank you, Amazon Kindle, for striking this important blow for students.